Classic Rock - a 30 year adventure

Poor weather in the Lakes gave us a weekend in Yorkshire, a county that spreads most of the way across northern England but only contains 2 of Ken’s Classics.  Almscliff Crag on a perfect Yorkshire summer day Almscliff is squarely in the realm of another classic; BBC’s strangely successful Last of the Summer Wine and in parallel with the show, we arrived, 2 middle-aged blokes, to play about in the countryside, with a Yorkshire Dales backdrop. I hope we looked a bit more competent and less desperate to impress than the characters we recalled, but with the reputation that Parson’s Chimney has, competence and desperation may both come into question. First impressions of the crag are beautiful but understated; a modest sized lump of castle-like rock, topping a small summit, with 360 views and climbs on all sides.  With the temperature hitting 24C by 10am, we were drawn after our 2 minute walk-in to the shady side, which happens to have the classic on. Choosing to warm up on a VD w...

It was over a year ago, March 2022, when we climbed this route but I’ve never written it up because I’d almost forgotten about it, though I see it ticked in the logbook. I remember that we parked at the usual Milestone car park overnight and set off promptly in the morning. The previous year, we’d made this same stroll up to Llyn Bochlwyd only to find a rain front descending the crag ahead, cross the lake to meet us and send us packing to Tre madog instead. On this day, it was fine and perfectly suited to high mountain cragging; but I wasn’t.  When I’m out in the mountains normally, I feel most alive and full of energy, physical and mental, but here I was trudging, hardly looking around and feeling lethargic. On arrival we warmed up by doing a route on alphabet slab and then took to the main event. I remember there being multiple options at numerous points that are all considered valid variations of the route; Gibson’s Chimney, The Rectangular Excursion, The Verandah. I can’t remem...